…and then there’s Mars Needs Writers. We can't begin to pretend our site is slick and upper class and chockfull o’ info-tainonal goodness (like some sites we know) but the truth is, we’re not in that league. Early on, we abandoned all hope of being, say, the DOWNTON ABBEY of the internet. Some sweet and distant day, we hope MNW is quirky and fun enough to be considered the PSYCH of the internet. We like PSYCH and we say so proudly. It’s quirky, it’s silly, and it’s fun. We like how the producers film the show in British Columbia but pretend it’s Santa Barbara, California because, they assume no one has ever actually been to Santa Barbara. Or California. We like how Shawn’s powers of observation are almost like a super power: if he one day can see objects from a mile away or on a subatomic level, we won’t be surprised. We like how, for the first few seasons, they played Gus as if he was gay but tried to pretend he wasn’t but he so totally was. He's kind of hyper-hetero now and we still like him, so good job, the guy who plays Gus. We like how the USA Network is going to open their next season with a two hour musical episode, as if their show was like GLEE but involved a psychic con man and a pharmaceutical salesman as two of the leads. And we like the show’s theme song. Most times, it’s the usual -- I know, you know, that I'm not telling the truth -- and we get it in English. On occasion, however, it’s been in Spanish. Also, Hindi. It can be offered as a capella (if a boy band is available) or adapted for a theme (the Christmas version) or a style (a la Tears for Fears). Sooner or later, we'll buy the entire PSYCH theme song MP3 catalog…if it is ever offered in its entirety...because we’re those kind of people. We’re also the kind of people who appreciate their own theme song so we wrote one for one of our novellas. (Almost no one has ever bought the novella so, as a sales device, it stinks but we suspected as much.) Since a theme song requires music, we found a lovely man with a basic grasp of English and he supplied the tune to our words, giving us the official FRANKENSTEIN, P.I. theme song. But, following in the footsteps of the PSYCH-meisters, we didn’t stop there. We wanted new editions of the same old song. We found the wonderful Jebediah Buzzard and he did his take on the thing and we really enjoyed his spin. A bit later, we discovered a bluesy country-and-western singer who provided a new approach to the lyrics (which we also enjoyed but the song itself is surprisingly long and slow so we're keeping it under wraps. For now). Most recently, we stumbled across Joseph Bennett (hiding out in New Zealand...we think) and he provided a new version of the song which is absolutely kick-ass. If we didn't already have an official theme song, THIS would be the theme song:

The point of all this? There is no point. Which is actually kind of the running theme behind PSYCH, too.

Come on in! This

is the electronic home of Renée Harrell. Did you bring any wine?

Renée & Harrell

It's about time you got here.

We aren't kidding about the wine.This is where we talk about writing... ...our writing, mostly. We also discuss kiva.org, Hunting Monsters Press, the magic bakery, self-publishing, pseudonyms, life itself -- a bunch of things.